Google’s parent company. It provides cloud computing services and other technologies to the Israeli and US militaries, US immigration authorities, and electronic monitoring companies.
Alphabet Inc is one of the world’s largest companies. Its subsidiaries include Google, YouTube, Fitbit, Nest, and Waymo, and it makes the Android operating system, Pixel phones, the Chrome browser and product line, and many other well-known consumer products. The company provides its Google Cloud Platform and data analytics services to a vast array of consumers.
The 2023–2024 War on Gaza
Since 2021, Google Cloud Platform, alongside Amazon Web Services (AWS), has developed the main cloud infrastructure platform for the Israeli government. Dubbed Project Nimbus, this is one of the largest technology projects in Israel’s history.
The Nimbus Project serves all branches and units of the Israeli government, including the Israeli military, which played a leading role in designing the tender for the contract and selecting the winning bids.
Initially, the Nimbus public cloud infrastructure was not designed to serve the military’s combat-facing or classified intelligence systems. For that purpose, the military has its own private internal cloud system, which connects all its branches—Army, Air Force, Navy, Intelligence—“from the command centers to the combat troops.” Among many systems, this internal cloud hosts the military’s massive "target bank," with tens of thousands of targets that get updated in real time. Internally referred to as the Operational Cloud, it was developed in-house by the military’s information technology (IT) unit—the Center of Computing and Information Systems (MAMRAM)—using IBM's OpenShift platform. The unit describes its Operational Cloud as “a weapon for all intents and purposes.”
While Nimbus was not initially designed for this purpose, the Israeli military started using its infrastructure to support and augment the capabilities of its Operational Cloud during its 2023–2024 war on the Gaza Strip. In late October 2023, preparations for the large-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip required unprecedented computing power, and the Operational Cloud became overloaded. MAMRAM took several steps to address this problem, including using “the public cloud providers, AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft,” as the commander of the IT unit revealed in July 2024.
In March 2024, the Israeli military signed a new contract for “consulting assistance from Google to expand its Google Cloud access, seeking to allow multiple units to access automation technologies.” The military “has its own 'landing zone' into Google Cloud—a secure entry point to Google-provided computing infrastructure,” TIME reported.
This potentially implicates Google, alongside Amazon and Microsoft, in the mass killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them unarmed civilians, using multiple AI systems (The Gospel, Lavender, and Where's Daddy?) that the military developed to generate targets and hit them at unprecedented scale with minimal human intervention.
These revelations also directly contradict Google’s repeated statement that it would “not design or deploy AI applications as weapons or weapons systems, or for mass surveillance,” and that its work in Israel “is not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
Google has also repeatedly maintained that “the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial cloud by Israeli government ministries, who agree to comply with our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy.” This also seems to be a misleading statement, as it was later revealed that the Nimbus contract is not subject to Google's regular terms of service, but instead to terms that have been dictated by the Israeli government (see more on that below).
In addition to Google Cloud services, the Israeli military reportedly uses Google Photos’ facial recognition features as part of its mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza. "By uploading a database of known persons to Google Photos, Israeli officers could use the service’s photo search function to identify people," according to The New York Times. One Israeli military officer was quoted saying that Google’s ability to match faces and identify people was better than technologies developed specifically for the military by Israeli company Corsight.
The military's conduct violates Google Photos' use policies, which forbid using the platform “to promote activities…that cause serious and immediate harm to people or animals.” The policy further states, “We will take appropriate action if we are notified of unlawful activities, which may include reporting you to the relevant authorities, removing access to some of our products, or disabling your Google Account.” Google refused to comment on how it applies this policy with regard to the Israeli military, as reported by The Intercept.
More Information About the Nimbus Cloud Platform
Google and Amazon were selected for the Nimbus Project in April 2021 and are splitting the $1.2 billion contract. As part of the contract, the two companies have also committed to “reciprocal procurement and industrial cooperation in Israel at the rate of 20% of the contract value.” Google reportedly estimated that during the life of the 7-year contract, it would make $525 million in revenue from the Israeli Ministry of Defense and $208 million from all other government agencies.
In the months leading to signing the Nimbus contract, Google was reportedly worried about its human rights implications, but decided to move ahead anyway. Google's own assessment team and outside human rights consultant stressed that “Google Cloud services could be used for, or linked to, the facilitation of human rights violations, including Israeli activity in the West Bank,” as was revealed in 2024.
Warning that "Google would have little understanding of how Nimbus customers in Israel were using its technology," the consultants recommended that the company not provide any AI products to the Israeli military and that the contract should include Google's AI principles. Google's Cloud Platform Terms of Service forbid its users from engaging in activities that “would reasonably be expected to lead to death, personal injury, or environmental or property damage (such as the creation or operation of nuclear facilities, air traffic control, life support systems, or weaponry).”
These provisions were not included in the final contract. Instead, the contract includes “Adjusted Terms of Service," which give the Israeli government total discretion over what Google products is could use and how it uses them, with no legal recourse for the company if Israel violates its terms of use.
Moreover, the contract includes a clause preventing Google from withdrawing. A lawyer for the Israeli government explained that this was done with the understanding that this project would draw negative public attention to the companies involved. The tender was designed to prevent the companies from shutting down services altogether or “denying services to particular government entities.”
Other government entities that use Nimbus and directly administer Israel’s policies of apartheid and persecution include the Israeli Security Agency (Shabak/"Shin Bet"), Police, Prison Service, and land and water authorities. Israel’s two large state-owned weapons manufacturers, Israel Aerospace Industries and Rafael, are also Nimbus users.
The list of Nimbus users also includes the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization, which works to expand Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights. Israeli cities and local governments also have access to the Nimbus platform, meaning that it could directly serve Israel’s illegal settlements.
In a separate tender, Israel contracted consulting firm Somekh Chaikin-KPMG, an affiliate of the Anglo-Dutch multinational KPMG, to establish a government cloud migration strategy. Dozens of other Israeli companies are involved in multiple projects to gradually migrate the government’s databases and systems to the Nimbus platform.
Employee Protest and Google's Response
Google has repeatedly silenced and retaliated against its workers who have protested its involvement in the Nimbus project.
In October 2021, a few months after Google and Amazon won the tender, hundreds of employees published a joint statement calling on the two companies to pull out of the project. The statement read, in part, “We envision a future where technology brings people together and makes life better for everyone. To build that brighter future, the companies we work for need to stop contracting with any and all militarized organizations in the US and beyond.”
In August 2022, a Google employee resigned an employee who disrupted a speech by the managing director of Google Israel at a conference. “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide,” the employee said. In the weeks leading up to the conference, more than 600 Google employees called on the company to drop its sponsorship of the conference, which was meant to promote the Israeli tech industry.
In April 2024, Google fired more than 50 employees who peacefully protested at its offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, Calif. By June, more than 1,100 students from more than 120 universities pledged not to work or intern at Google or Amazon until the companies drop Project Nimbus.
Other Violations of Palestinian Rights
Project Nimbus is not Google’s first involvement in human rights violations as part of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Google Maps discriminates against Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank in several ways. For example, Google Maps’ navigation results assume that users enjoy full freedom of movement and fail to consider the Israeli-imposed restrictions on Palestinians. Palestinian use of many roads in the occupied West Bank is either prohibited or restricted. The consequences for Palestinians following Google’s navigation instructions could include arrest, injury, and death.
Google Maps also omits many Palestinian villages and cannot find routes to major Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank, while displaying and giving driving directions to even the smallest, most remote Israeli settlements in the same area. Google sometimes labels these illegal settlements as being located in Israel, although they are not part of Israel even under Israeli law.
Moreover, Google omits Palestine as a country name, even though it was officially recognized as a state by the U.N. in 2012, while displaying country names like Taiwan and Kosovo, which are not recognized by the U.N. Google further labels Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, despite multiple U.N. resolutions to the contrary. In contrast, in the case of the Russian occupation of Crimea, Google displays different results for different users, demonstrating its ability to address issues arising from the cartography of occupied territories without taking sides.
YouTube, Google’s online video platform, also discriminates against Palestinians. For years, YouTube has been employing double standards with its content moderation policies and practices, blocking Palestinian content on the grounds that it incites violence while allowing similar or more blatant content when it targets Palestinians. In 2023–2024, YouTube again routinely restricted and penalized content that criticized Israel's attacks on Gaza.
US Immigration Authorities
Google is one of the top cloud computing providers to the U.S. government. It routinely provides these services to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its immigration agencies Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), mostly through third-party contracts.
Since 2019, CBP has been contracting annually with Virginia-based company ThunderCat Technology to provide Google Cloud Platform Services. The latest such contract, from June 2023, is worth a potential $3.6 million and could extend until June 2026. Another Virginia-based company, Four Points Technology, was awarded a $1.3 million contract to provide CBP with Google software in 2020. Similarly, in June 2024, CBP awarded a three-year, $19.5 million Google Cloud contract to a third company, Westwind Computer Products of Albuquerque, N.M.
In 2020, CBP accepted a proposal to use Google Cloud Platform’s “unique product features” to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the work of the agency’s Innovation Team (INVNT), which is responsible for enhancing the agency’s use of AI and other advanced technologies, including for the so-called “smart/virtual” wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Google’s system is integrated into surveillance towers developed by Anduril Industries, which can autonomously identify, detect, and track people from more than 1.5 miles away without a human operator.
Responding to employee concerns about Google’s relationship with CBP, the company stated in October 2020 that it was “not working on any projects associated with immigration enforcement at the southern border.” However, as immigrant rights activists pointed out, this claim cannot be taken at face value, having seen “what CBP is capable of doing at the border under the guise of security.”
In addition to providing IT services, Google also shares its users’ personal information with law enforcement agencies, including ICE, upon request. ICE uses administrative subpoenas, which do not require a court order, to “obtain information as part of investigations regarding potential removable aliens." Google approved 83% of the 40,000 requests it received from law enforcement agencies during six months in 2020. While users can theoretically prevent their information from being shared, they need to request this in federal court within seven days of ICE’s request, even though in certain cases they have no way of knowing about it until much later.
E-carceration/Electronic Monitoring
Google provides Google Maps integration to the largest providers of ankle shackles and other GPS-enabled electronic monitoring (EM) devices. This allows probation and parole officers to easily track "e-carcerated" individuals.
Google Maps is integrated into the ankle shackles and accompanying software of BI Incorporated, a subsidiary of private prison giant GEO Group. BI Inc has monitored “over 150,000 individuals” in the U.S. as of 2021. This includes an exclusive, long-term contract to monitor immigrants for ICE’s Intensive Supervision and Appearance Program. BI Inc describes Google Maps as one of its two “trusted partners,” alongside Verizon.
Similarly, Google Maps is integrated into EM Manager by Attenti, a subsidiary of Allied Universal, as well as VeriTracks, the EM brand of Aventiv Technologies (formerly Securus), the U.S.'s "largest and one of the most predatory providers of phone and communications services.”
US Military Work
Google has a long history of supporting U.S. military and intelligence agencies, work that has often faced backlash from its employees.
In 2018, Google prepared a bid for a $10 billion contract with the Pentagon to develop the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), a massive cloud platform for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), but eventually dropped out of the process, emphasizing that it would “continue to pursue strategic work to help state, local and federal customers modernize their infrastructure and meet their mission critical requirements.”
Google was also involved in Project Maven, a controversial AI-powered drone image recognition project for the U.S. military. In response, the company’s employees raised concerns about the project, and some resigned, stating that such technology might be used for lethal purposes and demanding “that neither Google nor its contractors...ever build warfare technology.” In response, the company did not renew its contract in 2018 for Project Maven, which was subsequently taken over by Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries.
However, Google has recently picked up this line of work again. In 2022, the DOD authorized Google Cloud to host “some of the military’s most sensitive (but not top secret) data.” The day after this announcement, the DOD revealed that Google was selected as one of the companies to be included in its Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability program. Google’s contract is worth $16.8 million and can extend until the end of 2027.
Two years later, in 2024, Google announced that its private and secure Distributed Cloud Hosted was authorized to host top-secret systems and information by agencies across the DOD and U.S. intelligence community.